Fast Ice by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on March 9, 2021

Who knows how much Clive Cussler contributed to Fast Ice and how much was written by Graham Brown? Cussler died about a year ago, but the Cussler factory is still going strong. If Cussler contributed at all, I imagine his contribution was something like this:

Cussler: “Okay, here’s the idea. A steerable iceberg. Cool, right? The bad guys are using it to, get this, create a new Ice Age. Then Kurt Austin steps in and saves the world. How’s that for awesome?”

Brown: “How are the bad guys creating an Ice Age?”

Cussler: “Do I have to do all the thinking here? Get me a first draft of the manuscript by Thursday. And send in my son. I’ve got a great idea for a new Dirk Pitt novel.”

Brown: “I’m on it boss.”

Okay, maybe I’m wrong, but Fast Ice certainly has the feel of a factory novel. The NUMA Files novels have always had co-authors, so how much of the writing is Cussler’s has always been unknown. Fast Ice is all action, doing little to build on characters that Cussler co-developed over the course of the series. That’s a hallmark of factory fiction; factory writers don’t feel free to alter characters who were brought to life by their original creators. But factory novels that trade on the name of a dead author, whether Ludlum, Parker, Crichton, or Cussler, can be good books, even if the odds are stacked against them. Fast Ice is no better than average.

Writers of modern thrillers seem to be competing to outdo each other with outlandish plots. The idea behind Fast Ice (apart from the steerable iceberg) is the notion that someone who views global warming as a signal that humanity needs to change decides to change the world by wiping humanity out. Not entirely, but mostly. Ryland Lloyd buys up islands and stretches of land along the equator that are likely to avoid the worst impact of the new Ice Age he wants to create. He and the others he invites to live there will survive to repopulate the planet with environmentally sensitive descendants after the ice recedes.

Preposterous? Oh yeah. A good bit of animal and vegetative life that the Ice Age will wipe out will never return, so the idea that Lloyd would believe he’s doing a good thing is hard to accept. But Lloyd is a madman so set that aside. Surely even a madman would understand that every government with a military (meaning every government) will eventually try to seize and claim the equatorial region as its own. Lloyd doesn’t have a military, so his belief that property ownership will mean anything as most of the planet freezes is too naïve for even a mad genius to embrace.

Apart from the silly premise, Fast Ice reads like a typical thriller. Austin and his buddy Joe Zavala travel to a ship that is about to sink because a former NUMA member may have been aboard. The former NUMAn was investigating a phenomenon that involves algae and a Nazi plan to block ports by clogging them with fast-growing ice. They eventually tumble to Lloyd’s scheme, which sends them to Antarctica, where chases ensue on snowmobiles and iceboats. Various action scenes involving shootouts, explosions, a helicopter ride during a hurricane, and an attempt to capture an iceberg keep the story moving so that the reader doesn’t have to think about its implausibility.

The characters are true to their previously defined personalities, trading quips as they go about their business of saving the world and avoiding death. Neither the characters nor the quips are particularly interesting. The characters never seem to be in actual danger. Bullets fly but, at worst, they might mess up the part of Austin’s hair. The scenes on the iceberg, in fact, seem entirely too easy. But the story moves quickly and has enough entertaining moments to distract fans of action novels as they await a more credible action novel with greater depth — a scarce commodity in the modern world of thrillers.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

The Eden Prophecy by Graham Brown

Published by Bantam on January 31, 2012

Stop me if you've heard this before: terrorists are about to unleash a dangerous new virus on an unsuspecting world. Yes, you've heard it before. You're also familiar with the chase scenes (this book features a car and motorcycle chasing a boat and dune buggies chasing ATVs), gunfights, explosions, hot women, studly men, and exotic locales, all standard ingredients in the recipe for a movie-style thriller. There's even a villain named Draco and some international finance intrigue involving stolen artwork. So why bother to open this book when it sounds like bad imitation of a Bond movie? A few reasons come to mind.

First, the virus is designed to infect cells but leave them intact, rather than destroying them as would a typical virus. The purpose of the infection isn't immediately clear, but once it was revealed I had to give Graham Brown credit for avoiding the obvious. His virus isn't unique -- I've seen the concept before -- but it isn't trite. Second, the terrorist group isn't one of the usual suspects (hint: it isn't Islamic!). Third, before it turns into a Bond film, the novel sounds like a Dan Brown story, complete with archeologists and a lost scroll written in a lost language that holds the key to .... something. The intersection of the two thriller subgenres produces an intriguing result, even if it's not quite new. Fourth, the novel has important things to say about overpopulation and torture and the inequities that result from making medical research largely dependent upon a market economy. There's also a useful theological message: Question authority, even (or especially) if the authority is biblical, but don't invite Armageddon to prove the falsity of divinity.

But enough of messages and plot points. The real reason to read The Eden Prophecy, despite its familiarity, is simple: it's a good book. In addition to the standard story about good guys saving humanity from bad guys, there is a more personal story about saving a child from a fast-approaching death, although it fades into the background until the final chapters. The good guys, National Research Institute operative Danielle Laidlaw and an ex-mercenary named Hawker, have been road tested in Brown's earlier novels, Black Rain and Black Sun. (Reading the prior novels isn't necessary to understand this one, but doing so would enhance a reader's appreciation of the secret revealed at the novel's climax.) Laidlaw and Hawker aren't complex characters but Brown gives them good chemistry. The story races along faster than a turbo-charged dune buggy. Brown's writing style is clean and direct, well-suited to an action-driven story. The "race against the clock" ending might be too predictable, too movie-like despite the insertion of a final plot twist, but it's consistent with the novel's slightly outrageous, cocky attitude.

The Eden Prophecy is well researched: in addition to the Old Testament (as suggested by the title), we hear about ancient languages and Gilgamesh and telomeres and Middle Eastern geography and the 5.9K event (a geological event, not a race). A surprising amount of information is packed into this novel. Still, I don't recommend The Eden Prophecy for its history or science lessons. I recommend it because it's fun.

RECOMMENDED